Flying target.



R. SINCLAIRE.

FLYING TARGET.

APPLICATION man lumzzs. |915.

1,203,147. Patented Oct. 31,1916.

T FICE.

REGINALD SNCLAIRE, OF CORNING, NEW' YORK.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Got. 31, 1916..

Application filed June 28, 1915. Serial No. 36,763.

To all whom t may concern v Be it known that I, REGINABD SrNoLAinn, a citizen of the United States ofA1nerica,

and a resident of Corning, New York, have l ble to break when falling to the groundy unhit by shot, are not suliiciently sensitive to the impact of the shot to insure their breaking when hit by only one or a few pellets. Inasmuch as it is the practice to count as hits only the pigeons actually shattered into pieces by the impact of a shot,

and as pigeons broken on falling to the ground are destroyed for future use, the 1mportance of increasing the percentage of breaks when the pigeons are struck and reducing the percentage of breaks resulting from unstruck pigeons falling upon the ground will be appreciated. The present clay pigeon is a compromise in this respect, the percentage of breaks from shot impact and recoveries from pigeons picked up, being balanced against each other.

It is the object of this invention to provide a pigeon which will have a greatly increased percentage of breaks, without a decrease of the percentage of recoveries, and indeed in the embodiment here shown with a higher increased percentage of recoveries.

For these purposes, the invention consists in a target a part at least of which is under internal tensile stress, so that any crack created by the impact of the shot, is-by the internal streeses of the target, developed into a complete disintegration and breaking up thereof.

In the preferred embodiment here shown, the target is of the form in which clay pigeons are commonly made, that is to say of a more or less concaved disk, the outer and upper surface of which is held under initial tensile strain by the inner and lower surface, and the material used in the construction of this preferred embodiment is glass or a vitreous composition of the same general character.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, in which corresponding parts are designated by similar marks of reference,-Figure l is a face view of a pigeon or target made in accordance with this invention. Fig. 2 is a cross section thereof. Fig. 3 illustrates a suitable press mechanism for forming a target in accordance with this invention.

Referring to Fig. l, it will be seen that the target is of the shape and contour now commonly employed with the clay pigeon, that is to say, it is a concaved disk embody ing a central dome l, and an outer flange 2 connected to the central dome by the inclined petticoat 3. In the embodiment shown, this target is made of glass, preferably by pressing in a mold in the ordinary manner as is shown in Fig. 3. This mold as usual, consists of the mold-proper Ll, and the plunger 5, the plunger being adapted to form the inner concaved side of the pigeon. If glass is the material employed, and the mold plunger be properly cooled, (it being shown for this purpose as hollow to permit water circulation therein), the glass 10 in contact with and adjacent to such plunger will be quickly set, while the outer convex upper surface l1 of the pigeon will be more slowly set by the hotter mold. Under these conditions, internal stresses will be set up in the glass, and the outer surface be under tension, and thus ready to disintegrate and go to pieces upon a slight fracture. By experiments, it has been found that targets made in this manner are fractured in a larger proportion of cases than ardinary clay pigeon, by the impact of a single shot.

It will be seen that not only can the stress left in the pigeon be regulated by the stress initially placed within it due to the relative temperature of the mold and plunger, but that also such stress, after being initially placed therein may be reduced by proper annealing to insure greater chance of recovery. In practice, this stress will be so adjusted as to insure breaking upon impact of shot ina high percentage of cases, and

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also to permit recovery when unhit. I have n found that a glass pigeon, even with the internal stresses necessary to insure breaking by the single shot, has sufficient mechanical strength to prevent it breaking when falling on the ordinary shooting ground.

It is obviously possible instead of forming a pigeon in one operation as here shown, to form it in two oper. tions, that is to say, to 'form the inner part of the pigeon in one pressing, and to cast around it a layer of glass of the same or of different co-eflicient of expansion, or to form the pigeon in the same pressing operation of tivo glasses having different co-efficient of thermal eXpansion. Likewise, my invention is not restricted to forming thevpigeon of the material here sho\vn,to-Wit, glass, for the stresses here described may be produced With other fragile material as for instance, by using tivo plates of different expansion co-eiiicient of drying shrinkages, or by using a clay or other fragile material, and more rapidly drying or setting of one of the sides.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is: v

1. Aflying target consisting `of an integral disk of a frangible material, such disk being under interna-l tensile strain.

2. A flying target consisting of a'concaved integral disk, the exterior of such disk bei-iig held under internal tensile strain by the interior of such'disk.

3. An integral iiying target consisting of a central dome, and a surrounding iiange connected to the dome by a petticoat, the outer surface of the target being held under internal tensile strain by the inner surface thereof.

4. An integral ying target consisting of frangible material having its outer surface under tensile strain.

5. An integral flying target of glass having its outer surface under initial tensile strain.

ln testimony whereof I have signed my name in the presence of two Witnesses.

REGINALD SINCLARE.

Witnesses J. T. LITTLETON, Jr., WM. C. TAYLOR.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing tli Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

